St. Charles booster Miller earns spot in Chicagoland Hall of Fame

Former Major League pitcher Bob Miller was born in Berwyn and attended Fenwick and Morton East high schools.

His heart, however - and with it his checkbook - have poured out to high schools in St. Charles.

Simply put, the 74-year-old Miller and his wife, Carol, have "donated a bunch of money" to local causes.

Funds include $1 million in 1999 to the Glenwood School for Boys and Girls in St. Charles and $14,000 to the Norris Cultural Arts Center in 2001.

"Every year I donate quite a bit in baseball memorabilia to the post-prom deal - for both schools (St. Charles East and St. Charles North)," Bob Miller said.

"Then for both baseball programs I donate every year, big time. And, quite frankly, the football program for St. Charles East, and their soccer program."

His philanthropy is why on Sept. 24 the former pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets was inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame.

Named Illinois' top prep athlete in 1953 before the Tigers won a three-team bidding war for his services - they spent $60,000 on the 17-year-old bonus baby - Miller has also received five major civic awards from the city of St. Charles, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association.

"I had a very good life and I was just trying to put something back in the barrel," Miller said of his altruism, which has seen him on the boards of 14 charities and on the executive committees of nine of them.

A man with scores of big-league memories, he said perhaps his favorite was beating the 1953 World Series Champion New York Yankees at the age of 18 years, 11 days, throwing a 2-hit shutout for 5 innings.

In 1954 he was the fourth-youngest player in the game and recorded the American League's fourth-lowest earned-run average. Miller allowed just 1 home run in 69.2 innings, to the Washington Senators' Roy Sievers.

"And the kids are still looking for it," joked Miller, who as chairman and CEO of the Major League Alumni Association from 1989-1996 raised membership from 675 to more than 4,000 retired players.

Miller pitched just five seasons before retiring in 1962, never coming back strong from broken wrists that sidelined him from the big leagues from 1957-61.

Kids may still be looking for that Sievers home run ball, and the Millers are looking out of the kids.

Bob watches baseball games at both St. Charles East and St. Charles North, and in 2008 the North Stars ballpark was dedicated in his honor. When the schools play each other he usually throws out the first pitch.

"Whenever they call me, I'm there," he said.

Often, with checkbook in hand.

Football Stars lacrosse-over

Once Ben Dvorak discovered the sport of lacrosse, spring baseball was history.

Why not? For one who had already expressed a passion for football - better yet, his father and lacrosse coach, Gregg, was a former hockey player - Ben could bang and whack something, and someone, more than a little white ball.

"They're pretty similar," Ben Dvorak said of both his physical sports. "It's not hard to go from the way you play lacrosse to the way you play football. They go hand in hand."

Joining Dvorak in these hand-in-hand pursuits are North Stars football teammates Pat Killeen and Dom Imbordino. The first two picked it up a little earlier than Imbordino, who quickly became an aficionado of the crosse.

When the North Stars strap it up Friday for their senior night football game against Neuqua Valley, they'll bring skills similar to the ones that have earned each of them Division I lacrosse offers.

Imbordino has given his verbal commitment to Ohio State, Killeen to Siena and Dvorak to Bellarmine. Chad Ellis, a non-footballer but an all-American lacrosse player from North - which co-ops with St. Charles East - also will play for Bellarmine.

Other football players on the lacrosse coop include St. Charles North's Spencer Swarts, Matt Huffman, Pat McGushin and Alex Pohl, and St. Charles East's Cooper Jones.

"With the amount of lateral movement and covering guys one on one, the speed of the game, they're kind of similar," said Imbordino, North Stars football coach Mark Gould's weakside linebacker, and a defender in lacrosse. "Lacrosse is sometimes faster, but you still have to be relatively quick."

Dvorak, an inside linebacker, is a midfielder in lacrosse while Killeen, a cornerback, plays the full-flavored position of long-stick middie.

"I take care of the transition game from defense to offense," said Killeen, who has helped the St. Charles coop to the final four three straight years - and three straight losses to powerful New Trier.

Taking care of the transition game includes, of course, mighty whacks with the stick.

"It doesn't feel good," Killeen said, "but after playing it for such a long time you don't really even notice it anymore."

Imbordino admitted he'll miss not playing football, but at least he'll get his fix at Ohio State.

Be it football or lacrosse, these guys are ready.

"Friday night lights for football are amazing," Killeen said. "But if it's spring season, lacrosse season, I like lacrosse."

doberhelman@dailyherald.com